A month ago, I posted this image which says there’s free wifi in the Old Port of Montreal.

Yesterday, the announcement of Studio 20 Montreal was launched, but that’s neither the important nor interesting part. The cool part is that I was in the Old Port when I did that. I discovered that the upload speed is amazing, over 500 k/s!!! It’s better than what I get at home.

I don’t know if it slows down if there are many people, but I was alone at a table in the grass area in front of Place Jacques-Cartier. Outdoor wifi has a range of almost 100 meters, so I’m guessing the infrastructure is in the surrounding buildings. This is very cool, it’s something to take advantage of, while the weather permits it.

I was leaving the fancy Caisse de Depot building downtown yesterday where I had just given an English class. A couple of years ago, Place Jean Paul Riopelle was erected between this building and the Palais des Congres. The park is lovely with a fountain and sculptures. During the summer, misters installed underground come to life, creating a spooky scene. In the evenings, fire dances around the fountain as “smoke” pours out everywhere. (Read about the full sequence here.) It’s quite a show. But as I was sitting there yesterday, I thought about what a colossal waste of money this is, and wondered how much it costs to maintain the infrastructure for such a park. It’s not surprising that we find this park amongst the most well-heeled wheelers and dealers in town. Oh and it’s impressive for tourists. But with bridges falling down and metro tunnels leaking, it sure seems like some of our public money is being unwisely spent.

This morning at about 9:30, it was announced that service was interrupted in the metro. I would tell you which lines, but saying all of them is easier. I was at metro Jean-Talon and walking all the way downtown was an option, except that I didn’t have two hours, so I took a cab.

It sucks when the subway is down. Having a conversation with a cab driver compensates a little. If I had more money, I’d take one with a different driver everyday. This morning, the guy was from Haiti and the conversation started with the flag hanging on his mirror.

He was telling me how Haiti is a country that can not live on its own and people like him send money to family and friends every month, and soon it’s all going to stop, because the next generation won’t be as sensible to all that happened and to what’s happening in Haiti. While saying that, the driver seemed sad, most likely because he has family there.

The good news is that Haiti is trying to be more open to tourism which can potentially become a great source of income.

The whole conversation was good. It made me forget about the subway and I didn’t know how long I was in the car, however I do know I paid $20 which isn’t so bad, but I won’t take a cab every day.

I wanted to buy a Mighty Mouse and who knew it would be so difficult! The obvious thing to do is go to the Apple Store in Laval, but I was in downtown. My options were Bureau en gros, Futureshop and Micro boutique which just opened in Eaton centre. That last store is almost all Mac!

None of them had the Mighty Mouse.

My next stop was at Coop informatique UQAM. The people are stupid there. They give an air of confidence when they talk, but when you ask them to do something, you wonder if they have more knowledge than the people at Futureshop. For the record, they do have more knowledge, they just have no clue how to use it.

Anyways, it was very simple when I got there. I saw the Mighty Mouse through a locked glass door, told the clerk to get it, paid for it, said “no bag”, got out and that’s it, that’s all. FYI, it costs less than the price advertise on the U.S. Apple Store! Go get one (or more) while quantity lasts ;)

I just wrote thrice as much as the above and deleted* it, because I realized that it was all a personal vendetta about how I hate UQAM and it all originates from the fact that they have recently installed air conditioning. Instead of bashing, I’ll say a good thing about them: their A.C. system feels really good.

Google ran a contest last month in order to build a collaborative video through Youtube for Gmail. The idea was to pass the Gmail logo (an M envelope) in a creative way through video. Ann and I (swing dancers from Montreal) submitted our creative idea. And we made it! Not only in the video, but on the Thumbnail of the youtube video. Selected from over 1,100 clips from fans in more than 65 countries. We’re proud to represent Lindy Hop (the dance) and of course, Montreal.

Yulblog is a monthly gathering of Montreal bloggers. I’ve known about it since before I started writing on Metroblogging Montreal in December 2004. It’s odd that my first attendance is almost three years later. I actually wrote the second post ever on this blog which makes me the longest runner on this thing, but I think I might just be the youngest (23) blogger here. How ironic!(more…)

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